Thailand targets a position of Asia’s leading data centre giant

In a bid to position itself as a regional data centre powerhouse, public and private organisations attended the NextGen Data Centre Conference 2024 yesterday, drawing upon inspiration from Singapore and Malaysia to extend Thailand’s presence in the industry.

The event, hosted by Siemens and Krungthep Turakij brought together key players from both public and private sectors within the industry.

The primary focus of the conference was on strategising ways to transform Thailand’s data centres into sustainable, resilient, scalable, and efficient operations.

This transformation is seen as crucial for Thailand to achieve its ambition of becoming the ASEAN region’s data centre hub by 2027.

CEO of Siemens Thailand Ross Conlon underscored the importance of attracting investment in future industries, particularly digital technology and artificial intelligence (AI), aligning with the government’s Thailand Vision 2030 initiative.

He emphasised the need for robust research and development in AI adoption and the establishment of technological infrastructure, including data centres, to meet escalating demand and support cloud computing and related businesses.

Drawing parallels with other Southeast Asia nations, Conlon suggested Thailand emulate Singapore’s success as the current leader in Southeast Asia’s data centre industry and Malaysia’s rapid advancement in recent years.

Siemens pledged its support for Thailand’s ambitions, offering its latest technology in fibre optics capable of transmitting data at 140 terabits per second, along with secure energy sources and infrastructure.

A significant announcement came from Thailand’s Board of Investment (BOI), revealing that the kingdom currently hosts 13 centres with an estimated market value of US$2.2 billion (81 billion baht) as of 2023, projected to grow to US$2.8 billion this year.

Executive Director of BOI’s Foreign Investment Marketing Division, Ratchanee Wattanawisitporn highlighted various investment privileges, including tariff exemptions, corporate tax exemptions up to 13 years, and visa perks for expatriates, aimed at attracting investors to Thailand’s burgeoning data centre sector.

Ratcjanee also disclosed keen interest from tech giants like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, and Microsoft Azure in investing in Thailand’s data centre landscape.

To bolster the country’s digital infrastructure, the Thai government has undertaken several initiatives, including the expansion of submarine fibre optic cables to a total of 13, positioning Thailand for future growth in the data centre industry and enhancing its status as a regional hub, reported The Nation.